Garden Steps, The Beeches, 7 Montgomerie Terrace, Skelmorlie

This is a charming villa, likely designed by John Honeyman and built in 1874. It is situated at 7 Montgomerie Terrace, Skelmorlie, and forms part of a group value context. The house is a single-story structure with an attic, roughly rectangular and featuring four bays, with a multi-gabled design creating visual interest. Decorative cast-iron finials and bargeboards adorn the east and west-facing gables, including those of the dormers. The west elevation displays canted bay windows, while a decorative Gothic timber porch provides entrance on the east side. Deeply bracketed eaves, a single-story service wing to the north, and a 20th-century conservatory on the south contribute to the building’s character.

The exterior is constructed of squared, snecked, and tooled red sandstone, with Aberdeen-bond stonework on the east side and polished ashlar dressings elsewhere. Chamfered ashlar window margins and window hoods above the ground floor west-facing windows add further detail.

The east, or entrance, elevation features a pair of timber panelled doors within a stop-chamfered, roll-moulded architrave. A sandstone step leads to the porch, which has a slate roof, scrolled bargeboards, a trefoil carving on the gable, and open timber lattice side panels. A later bipartite dormer is positioned above. A border-glazed staircase window and a tripartite window with a taller central light are also present, along with a gabled bay to the left. The service wing extends to the outer right, incorporating a bipartite window.

The west, or principal, elevation has a pair of glazed doors with a fanlight centrally located, with a dormer above. A canted bay window is situated to the right at ground level, also with a dormer above. A slightly advanced gable to the left displays another canted bay window at ground level, and the service wing extends to the outer left with a bipartite window.

The north elevation is dominated by the service wing. A half-glazed timber panelled back door is flanked by windows, and a small window is positioned within the gable apex. The south, or side, elevation features a late 20th-century conservatory replacing a previous Victorian conservatory, and a trefoil-headed window at the first floor, with a middle-pointed relieving arch above.

Plate glass is set within timber sash and case windows. Rendered chimney stacks are topped with fluted yellow clay cans, and the roof is covered with graded grey slate.

Inside, a half-glazed timber panelled inner door leads to a lobby. The principal ground-floor rooms boast round-arched marble chimneypieces with projecting keystones. Some built-in display cupboards are also present. A curved staircase features barley-twist cast-iron balusters, a mahogany hand rail, and a newel post. A larder includes slate shelves. Picture rails, embossed paper friezes, decorative cornicing, and ceiling roses are characteristic of the principal rooms, with plainer cornicing in the bedrooms. Timber panelled interior doors are found throughout the house.

A U-shaped coach house and stable is also located on the property. The central range has garage doors, replacing former paired arched carriage entrances. An advanced gable on the right incorporates a timber boarded door and a decorative cast-iron lamp bracket on the courtyard elevation, with a dormer window at the entrance to a flat on the east elevation. A single-story, piend-roofed section is advanced to the left.

The boundary is defined by a coped, random rubble sandstone wall with pyramidal-capped gatepiers and two-leaf cast-iron gates. Sandstone steps lead to a garden terrace west of the house and beside the coach house.